Russian jet's crew may have warned Swiss of crash risk

The grief-stricken parents of some of the 45 schoolchildren who died when two aircraft collided over Germany late on Monday moved like ghosts out of a white stone government building in Ufa.

As they came down the stairs from a fourth-floor room where local officials had briefed them about plans to visit the crash site yesterday, some walked quietly, looking straight ahead, while others, comforted by relatives, wept inconsolably.

In a new twist, Russia's RIA news agency claimed yesterday that the Russian aircraft's crew had alerted Swiss air controllers they were on a collision course with another jet 90 seconds before they crashed in mid-air over southern Germany, killing 71 people.

Quoting Russian investigators, RIA said the crew told Swiss controllers the Tupolev-154's onboard collision warning system had flashed that the plane was on the same trajectory as a DHL Boeing 757 cargo jet.

This followed the acknowledgment by Swiss officials on Wednesday that an automatic system that alerts air traffic controllers to potential collisions had been shut off for maintenance at the time of the crash.");document.write("

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Swiss air traffic control faced further questions yesterday after officials revealed that Swiss authorities had recommended a week ago that air traffic control up-date its outmoded radar system.

It was the fourth blow for families. On Tuesday, they learned that a mistake by the tour operator had caused the 45 children, who had travelled 26 hours by train to Moscow, to miss their original flight to a Spanish holiday.

German prosecutors have reportedly opened a criminal investigation into the collision.

In Ufa, capital of the Bashkortostan Republic, in central Russia, flags on government buildings flew at half mast. Schools tied black ribbons on the Bashkir and Russian flags that fly over their front doors. Cinemas and clubs were closed for three days of mourning.

The loss touched schools across the city. Gymnasium No3, a yellow, two-storey building on a central square, lost seven pupils in the crash. Thirteen year9 students and three teachers from the school spent the day visiting the mothers of their dead classmates.

The first stop was Karl Marx Street, where they met Elena Kozlova, whose daughter, Darya, died in the crash.

"To lose your child is the most bitter thing in life," Ms Kozlova said. But, she told her daughter's schoolmates: "Dig into life and be joyful."